The Political Economy of Football V2

There are still plenty of international buyers looking for clubs with potential.  Will the war in the Middle East dampen their enthusiasm?   Probably not for Americans who are currently the main movers and shakers.   They may feel even more 'bigly'. Bradford City look like one good prospect.   Owner Stefan Rupp, a German investor, bought the club with a business partner in 2016 but has been in sole charge since 2019. They were a League One side when he arrived, but were relegated in the year his partner quit and then returned to League One last year. They have spent most of this season in the play-off positions and are now fourth, six points clear of seventh-placed Huddersfield with a game in hand. Rupp has been listening to offers for years but has showing a bit more leg ever since last season’s promotion, hence the 31-slide “Welcome to Bradford City” presentation that arrived in the inbox.of Matt Slater, football business writer at The Athletic. ...

Given the size of Bradford as a city and the attendances they attract, the Bantams have punched below their weight for some time.  But now visitors to the city of culture are finding themselves 'pecked by the chickens'. A quick glance at the League One table says as much. Bradford sit second in English football’s third tier after eight games, behind leaders Cardiff City on goal difference. The two clubs meet on Saturday in south Wales. Next week also brings a trip to Newcastle United in the Carabao Cup third round and a reminder for the 5,000 travelling fans of the heady days around the turn of the millennium when the West Yorkshire side visited venues such as St James’ Park every other week in back-to-back years as a top-flight club. “Great times,” says Mike Harrison, editor of the long-running, award-winning City Gent fanzine. “I went to all 78 games, home and away, in those two seasons, as I suspected it might not happen again. We’ve been through a lot since then, but N...

Bradford City finally managed to secure promotion back to League One last season, but they sure left it late, as third place was only confirmed after Antoni Sarvecic’s 96th minute winner against Fleetwood Town in their last league game. This achievement ended the Bantams’ six-year stay in League Two, which felt far too long for a club of Bradford City’s magnitude. Many outside observers had struggled to understand their relatively low status, given the natural advantages enjoyed by City. For example, Bradford has a very big catchment area, with the city ranked as the 10th largest in England, above the likes of Nottingham, Newcastle, Brighton & Hove and Wolverhampton – all of which have clubs in the Premier League. During their time in England’s fourth tier, the closest City had previously come to going up was in 2022/23, when they were beaten by Carlisle United in the play-off semi-finals. In fact, they had finished as low as 15th two years before that - or 83rd in the Englis...

What happened with the failed cryptocurrency bid for Bradford City?  The Athletic  has been finding out. WAGMI United is a decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO), a group governed by computer coding — usually in the form of crypto tokens. Anyone who holds these tokens can vote on matters related to the DAO. The decisions are carried out by automated contracts.  They want to buy a club in League One or League Two, the third and fourth levels of the English football pyramid, and take them to the Premier League. That, believe it or not, is the straightforward bit. They intend to do this by creating club-related NFTs — characters, kits, pictures, videos and so on — that they can sell to the “global community” of crypto traders and NFT enthusiasts. Their NFTs will be better than others already out there, though, as they claim they are offering fans a chance to effectively own a piece of the team.   Remember the web-based Ebbsfleet United MyfFotballClub fiasco? ...

Bradford City have distanced themselves from reports that they are going to be taken over by a group of American cryptocurrency investors:  https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/sport/football/bradford-city/are-bradford-city-the-efl-club-set-to-be-taken-over-by-cryptocurrency-investors-3497798 However, the WAGMI United Group has been in touch with supporters:  https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/sport/sportlatest/19790734.bradford-city-fan-speaks-talking-wagmi-united-group/ Philadelphia 76ers team president Daryl Morey is reported to be among the group keen on City. It is headed by sports gambling analyst Preston Johnson and co-founder Eben Smith, who has a background in finance. Businessman Gary Vaynerchuk, chairman of communications company VaynerX, and Tik Tok social media figure Bryce Hall have also been named among those involved.

An interesting analysis of the decline of Bradford City who have been relegated to League Two: With a whimper rather than a bang Financial losses topped £2m for the last financial year and the club’s decline on the pitch has been matched by steadily falling support, with season ticket sales having dropped by 4,000 and one home match, against Coventry City in October, attracting the club’s lowest league attendance in the last five years. It's another story of incoming owners who thought that football success could be easily achieved: 'The owners of the club attempted to make too many changes too quickly, in spite of their initial statement when taking control of the club three years ago, whilst the apparent motivation of the man placed in control of the day-to-day running of the club seemed directed more by ego than the best interests of the club.' 'Failures in recruitment at all levels have been a clear signal of the shortcomings of the ownership, but Stefan Rupp – ...